The Baby Boat Programme

The experience of the boat - the Baby Boat

Programme

V.Salamon Faculty of Graphic Arts, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The paper presents the showlworkshop "Experience of the Boat" which was established by the NGO Ars Halieutica to be performed for and with the active participation of the local children. The show and the workshops are performed both on the shore and on the water. The show "Ala Falka!" is presented in order to inspire the children to express their new experience of the boat in a painting, a sculpture, a poem etc., in the subsequent art workshops. The idea of the ship and the boat is presented through the story of the two traditional Adriatic boats - the simple trupa from the river Neretva delta and the

- more complex fishing boat gajeta falkusa the vessels small enough to present the archetypal essence of the boat in a simple and intimate way. Although structurally elementary but including all the basic features of the boat and the ship, both the trupa and the gajeta are the boats of fascinating functional complexness.

According to the Ars Halieutica "Do Touch" principle, the polytechnic heritage and the experience of living with the sea is presented through animation of all senses of the children and other participants of the programme. Taking active part in the events, the children are offered to: touch while building the paper or wooden kit ship and boat models, buildinglassembling the actual trupa and the gajeta falkusa, paddling and rowing and sailing the gajeta and the trupa etc., watch the actual building of the trupa and the gajeta, documentary films on life with the sea, on the sailing of the gajeta falkusa etc., listen to the poetry in native dialect, to the songs and music about the sea, about the boat and the man etc., taste and scent the traditional national food and beverages, aromatic Mediterranean island herbs etc.

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1. The programme objectives

1.1. The establishment of the ship and the boat as the true cultural value

In our culture, on the global level, the maritime heritage, the heritage of the fishermen, the mariners, the shipwrights and other participants of the maritime history is unjustly neglected. It is true for the material aspects of the maritime heritage but even more so for the non-material, the non-tangible aspects of the maritime culture. In presenting the Man's art of building, the architecture, the buildings on solid ground are exclusively presented. The art of building boats and ships, the naval architecture, the architectura navalis, is almost entirely ignored. The knowledge, the arts and the skills of the shipwrights, the mariners and the fishermen are lost without a trace. And yet, the boat, the ship, one of the oldest man-made objects, is and has always been an important subject in man' life, embodying certain features that cannot be attributed to any other product of the human hands. Man's relation to the ship is determined by the fact that the ship is more than a house, more than a town, in sailing the ship becomes a planet, the world within itself, thrust into the space, into the cosmos of the ocean. For a long time in history the ship was the only product of human hands that has been christened. The ship was also entitled to have afuneral - each year on the day of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of travellers and mariners, old boats are burnt in Komiza on the Adriatic island of Vis in the sacred fire for protection of all other ships and mariners. In the huge variety of human symbols the ship is among the richest in meaning, almost an archetype. The ship is a vessel, an ark, a container, strongly related to the alchemist's bowl, hermetic vessel or a woman's womb. The ship is also both the cradle and the coffin. Numerous myths and legends of various civilizations in history, as well as the archaeological finds around the world, point out the ship as means of transportation of the souls of the dead but also as an ark that rescues lives in a cataclysm. The ship's structure is explicitly anthropomorphic: the ship's keel corresponds to the human spine; ship's frames are secured to the keel like the ribs are secured to a spine in a human body; the ship's planking protects the inside of the ship like the skin does the internal organs; the ship's oars correspond with arms and legs, the sails with the wings - the object of man's eternal desire etc. Opposite to the theme of defence and physical integrity of the square sanctuary, the curvature of the ship's form reminds of the roundness of the female body, emphasizing the theme of intimacy, gentleness, peace and safety. Man has gradually learned certain order in the behaviour of the wind and the sea. But to his mind sailing remains essentially the same as it has always been - overcoming the waters of abyss, overcoming chaos, reaching peace. Man has eventually learned the behaviour of various materials, in various loads, of different designs of the ship's structure, all in the never-ending effort to improve the design. But the ship remains his only product, the product of his hands, that he himself does not consider a thing, a lifeless object - to man the ship is a living creature.

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Moreover, "The Ship, She is a Lady" as the English would say. And not unlike a beautiful lady the ship or the boat may inspire a very distinctive subjective, even intimate, personal view. The eternal man's relation to the ship is clear. The ship, a naval object, has always been an important subject in man's life. It is for that reason that the boat was found to be the most suitable object to present the experience of the man's art of building through the "Experience of the Boat" programme.

Presenting the "Experience of the Boat" programme to various audiences in Croatia and abroad clearly displays the boat's bonding power in opening the dialogue among people of different cultural heritage. The audience and the workshop participants instantly, easily and with great joy recognize the universal transethnic features of our Mediterranean, Adriatic, Istrian or Dalmatian boats, but were also always fascinated by the specific ethnic features, by the local boat design "dialect" which proved to be as distinctive and attractive as the local dialect or music. The effect was further supported and complimented by the local dialect and music in the "Experience of the Boat" programme. Offering their recognizable features of the universal mutual heritage, we have found that boats easily initiate the dialogue across and because of the differences.

1.2. Conveying the experience of the measure

One of the important objectives of the "Experience of the Boat" programme is to convey the experience of living with the sea. The eternal story about the Man and the Boat is presented through the shipwright's, the mariner's, the sculptor's, the painter's, the musician's, the poet's and other artists' experience of the boat and the sea. Since the modern man is creating the dangerous disturbance within the natural balance, the programme is primarily focused on presenting the experience of measure, the very essence of the experience of the sea and the boat. It is shown how the experience of measure, of non-opposing the nature, is displayed in the boat's curved body shaped to give little resistance in the water, in the idea of making the boat watertight by simply letting the water in to soak and swell the planking which then seals the hull, in sailing against the wind by letting the wind itself take the boat in the desired direction etc.

The boats presented in the programme - the simple trupa, the boat from the Neretva river delta and the more complex gajeta falkusa, the fishing boat from Komiza, island of Vis - are the vessels small enough to present the archetypal essence of the boat in the simple and intimate way, including all the basic features of the boat and ship. At the same time, although structurally elementary, their design reveals fascinating functional complexness. So the trupa is normally used for navigation, but also as the child's playground while the adults work in the fields. The boat can be used as the container for transporting the crop aboard the larger vessel lada. Trupa turned upside down is used as a shelter in a rainy storm etc.

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The fascinating design of the gajeta falkusa wonderfully balances the multitude of mutually opposing demands that the functional features of the two entirely different vessels should be united in one boat solely - the features of the sailinglrowing boat of large displacement and the features of the manoeuvrable light and low fishing boat. The perfect balance of the colliding requirements achieved with the gajeta falkusa design represents the true example of the experience of the right measure of the local maritime society. Through the story of a small boat the programme "Experience of the Boat" aims to help transferring the idea of balance in living with the nature of our ancestors to the modem man and, above all, to the children.

1.3. Reviving the lost experience of the hand

When the Ars Halieutica gajeta falkusa replica first moored in Split, among the typical Mediterranean blend of approving and disapproving commentaries from the gathered crowd, a young boy's cry was heard: "I saw this on Plain truth (TV show), but this is the real truth!" The electronic virtual reality definitely seems to dominate the culture of today, tempting the modem child into the world of visual illusion. Reducing the totality of the human sensorium to the mere organ of vision, the on-screen visual sensation offers the eye the illusion of being the substitute to the entire sensory, depriving hands of their creative role in human life. Truly, is the hand of the man of the modem Babylon not "loosing its cunning", its skills being reduced to pressing the keyboard buttons? The workshop "Experience of the Boat" prime objective is to help the children and other participants find the necessary balance. Employing the Ars Halieutica "Do touch" principle, the programme "Experience of the boat" offers the children to the kinaesthetic experience, the traditional experience of the Hand through the experience of the Boat. Participating in actual building and sailing the boat, one of the oldest products of man's hands, the children can experience the joy of creation and express their experience of the boat through painting and building the paper and wood boat sculptures and models etc.

2. The programme

2.1. The show/workshop "Ala falka!"

The workshop starts with the show "Ala falka!" performed by the professional actors and musicians. To avoid the necessity of the translation the show is performed in mime. The actors gather the group of children and lead them to the scbne where the history of the man and his boat will be presented offering them to actively participate in the events.

Accompanied by the music performed on drums, the actor - the man on the island - presents the idea of the boat. The analogy in shape and the body structure of the boat and the living creatures is presented. The keel is the

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backbone, the frames are the ribs, the plating resembles the skin, the rudder - the will, the sails - the wings etc. The children help the actor in building the baby boat. The structure of the Neretva trupa (simple structure) and the gajeta falkusa (the complex structure) is assembled using the authentic structural

elements. The Baby Boat is the authentic traditional boat reduced in size to fit the size of the children.

Figure 1: The Baby Boat is assembled with an explanation of the role of various elements of the structure (structural strength, water tightness etc.).

Figure 2: The children lift the completed structure and carry it to the sea where the Baby Boat trupa and the gajeta falkusa are moored.

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The show is then followed by the workshop "Navigation" in which the children are welcomed aboard the trupa and the gajeta falkusa Baby Boats to practically experience the rowing, paddling and sailing the boats they have learned to build.

2.2. The workshop "Navigation"

Aboard the Baby Boat, the children learn the essential knots, experience the use of the oars, the hoisting and trimming the sails in sailing and other mariners skills. They learn the principles of the simple mechanical devices through using the ship's tackle and other devices for augmenting the human force in lifting the heavy loads.

2.3. Music and poetry workshop

In the music and poetry workshop another view of the boat is presented. Musicians perform barcarolles and habaneras on viola da gamba and lute.

The lute is chosen since the term lute, or liuto in Italy, laud in Catalonia and leut in the eastern Adriatic, which is etymologically linked to the Arabian word al' ud meaning the wood, denotes both the musical instrument and the type of the traditional fishing boat. The similarities in the design of the leut - the boat and the leut - the musical instruments are also presented.

Children also listen to the poetry in the Croatian island dialect and the original habaneras,fado and other songs and on sea and navigation. The island dialect of the Croatian language features also the lingua franca, the universal language of the Mediterranean shipwrights and mariners, particularly in the ship's commands and the ship's nomenclature.

2.4. The "Porto Franco" workshop

The children participating in the "Porto Franco" small shipyard workshop are provided with the shipwright's toolbox with "baby" shipwright's tools. The tools are designed in accordance with the authentic ones, but are reduced in size to suit the hand of a child. Also, the tools' design is adapted to prevent children from injuries.

Figure 3. Paper models of the trupa and the gajeta falkusa.

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In the atmosphere of the Adriatic, surrounded by the scents, tastes and the sounds of the Adriatic Sea, the children build the cork and paper models of the "baby boats".

Figure 4. Girls with their boats made of cork and the Komiza boy with his "kalanko" - the traditional tin toy-boat.

2.5. The "Art" workshop

The children are shown various artists' interpretation of ships and the navigation through the history. Images of ships and boats in various art techniques are presented: graffiti, fresco, mosaics, tapestry, woodcut, engraving, relief, watercolour, oil painting, etc. Also the works of the children participating in earlier workshops are presented.

The children participating in the workshop are encouraged to express their own new experience of the boat in a painting using various techniques and materials, to express it in a song or poem, etc.

3. Conclusion - the "experience of the boat" workshop

experience

The experience of presenting the workshop shows that perhaps the objectives were correctly chosen. Children who wrote their first letters on the computer screen, respond wonderfully to the opportunity to create something with their own hands - be it boat models or painting. The "Porto Franco" workshop held at the Brest 2000 Festival of the Marines and boat models the sea was so crowded that we were later even approached in cafks on the Rue de Siam by parents who wanted to make reservations for their children for the next day workshop. In the workshops, the adults were often happy to sit with their children and work with them.

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Although, according to the author's teaching experience at the University of Zagreb, the severe decline of interest of young generations for understanding the simple mechanical principles can be detected even on a global level, the "Experience of the Boat" workshops prove that people, the children and the adults alike, are equally enthusiastic and excited confronted with the opportunity to work and sail the wooden boat which emanates the strong air of tradition. They are excited to use and learn the mechanical devices on boats, to have the experience of using their muscles in building, rowing or sailing the boat, of training the hand and the mind in tying the knots etc. It is true for the young generation that seems to be satisfied with pressing the buttons, never minding how the mechanism does the work. It is true for the people not interested in the principle of the automobile motor and transmission, even in the very essence and the reason for changing gears on their mountain bikes. We are happy to witness the warm response which the workshop receives everywhere, because we feel the dangerous lack of balance in the modern society, when simple mechanisms that were clear to the child in the Pharaoh's

Egypt or in Aristotle's Greece are completely obscure to the child of the 31d millennium. When the boat is presented e.g. as having the attributes of the living creature in man's perception children accept it as quite normal. The adults however, often seem surprised as if confronted with the long forgotten notion.

Then we are convinced that we are doing it right.